Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co.

JOS. SCHUTZ BREWING CO. Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co., Container Division," and United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO,2 Petitioner.-Case 30-RC-1470 August 9, 1971 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION BY MEMBERS FANNING, BROWN, AND KENNEDY Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a hearing was held before Hearing Officer Cecil Sutphen. Following the hearing, this case was transferred to the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C., pursuant to Section 102.67 of the National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations and Statements of Procedure, Series 8, as amended. Thereafter, the Petitioner and Employer filed briefs. Pursuant,to 'the provisions of Section 3(b) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the National Labor Relations Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member panel. The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's rulings made at the hearing and finds that they are free fromprejudicial error. They are hereby affirmed. Upon the entire record in this case, including the briefs filed herein, the Board finds: 1. The parties stipulated that Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co., Container Division, a Wisconsin Corporation, is engaged in the manufacture of cans at its Oak Creek, Wisconsin, facility. During the past year the Employ- er purchased and received goods valued in excess of $50,000 from suppliers located directly outside the State of Wisconsin. Accordingly, we find that the Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act, and that it will effectuate the purposes of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein. 2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent , certain, employees of the Employer. 3. A question affecting commerce exists concern- ing the representation of certain employees of the Employer within the meaning of Sections 9(c)(1) and 2(6) and (7) of the Act. This case involves the plant of a new employer, Jos. Schlitz Brewing Company, Container Division, a subsidiary corporation of Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company. The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of all production and maintenance employees at the plant, excluding office clerical, technical, and profes- sional employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act. The Employer agrees as to the appropriate- 1 The name of the Employer was amended at the heanng 2 The name of the Petitioner was amended at the heanng. 553 ness of this- unit. Local 494, International Brother- hood ,of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, has inter- vened and asserts that its contract with the Milwaukee brewery covers the Container Division employees and, alternately, that a separate unit of electronic repairmen and electricians is appropriate. The Car- penters District Council of Milwaukee County and Vicinity, affiliated with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners of America, AFL-CIO, inter- vened and seeks a separate -unit of millwrights employed at the Container Division. Union Local No. 601 of the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry of the United States and Canada also intervened on the ground that its contract with the Milwaukee brewery covers any steamfitters employed at the Container Division.3 The Container Division plant commenced opera- tions on or about April 1, 1971, and is entirely devoted to the manufacturing of beer cans for use at Schlitz breweries across the country. The production process is fully automated and is capable of producing 1,200 aluminum cans per minute. It is expected that the plant will be able to produce 250 million beer cans per year when production is at its peak. As of the date of the hearing, the Employer had approximately 50 production and maintenance employees working, at the plant and expects to have 70 employees when the plant becomes fully operative. 1 The existing produc- tion job- classifications and the number of 'employ- ees in each as of the date of the-hearing are as follows: adjusters, 15; can technicians, 3;, chemical process operators, 2; maintainers, 12; inspectors, 1; and operators, 5. The existing maintenance. department classifications and the number of employees in each are: driver-janitor, 1; electrician, 1; electronic repair- men, 3; machinists, 2; millwrights, 2; and tool-and- die makers, 2. The Container Division is located 12 miles from the Milwaukee brewery in Oak Creek, .Wisconsin. All of the employees working at the new plant are new Schlitz hires-none were transferred from the Mil- waukee brewery-and the remaining 20 positions will be filled with new Schlitz employees as well. The Employer stated that there will not be any temporary or permanent transfers between the Container Divi- sion and Milwaukee brewery. All of the frontline supervisors are also new hires and most of the top management personnel were not previously employed by Schlitz. In terms of overall company organization, the plant manager of, the Container Division reports to a different Schlitz vice president than the vice president overseeing the brewery operations. The engineering, purchasing, production, quality control, 3 At present no steamfitters are employed at the Container Division. 192 NLRB No. 79 554 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD and labor-'relations functions are also handled on a separate ` basis. Furthermore, different policies are applicable to the brewery employees than those of Container Division employees with respect to holi- days, vacations, insurance, and shift schedules. The plant involved herein utilizes a two-piece production process which produces a seamless can with an integral bottom and an aluminum top. An intricate trackwork system moves the product from the uncoiler; the first piece of equipment, to the automatic palletizer, the last piece of equipment on the production line. All components on the line are interconnected and' are dependent on each other for overall production. The automated equipment is actuated by electronic sensing devices so that, other than for inspection and-maintenance, the cans are not touched by human hands from fabricating through packaging. The coils of aluminum used in the production process are unloaded from railroad cars, placed on an upender, then picked up by Z hoist and conveyed by an overhead crane to an uncoiler which feeds the aluminum into a cupping press. This press stamps out circular pieces of aluminum into cups approximately 4'inc'hes in diameter'and 1 inch high, which are then redrawn and wall-ironed into plain aluminum can bodies. After being trimmed to the correct-height, the ,cans are conveyed to a washer for a complete wash and then to the printer where three colors are printed by the dry offset method and an overcoat of varnish is applied. A thin coat of varnish-is also applied to the bottom of the can to enhance mobility of the can throughout the plant and the brewery. Next the cans are conveyed to the decorating oven where' the ink and varnish are dried. A protective coating is then sprayed on'the inside of the can and dried in another oven. The cans are conveyed past the inspection table to the necker flinger where the can is flared out into a flange which makes the can ready to accept the pop top unit.'The cans are then tested and conveyed to an automatic palletizer where the cans are stacked up and prepared for either warehousing or shipping to the brewery. The plant is organized under a concept wherein all employees, whether' production or maintenance, work together to'maintain the continuous operation of the production' line. For this reason, maintenance is done both by the maintenance workers and by production workers. Both groups of employees use the work- benches located throughout the plant. The mainte- nance employees, therefore, spend most of their time in production areas in order to promote uninterrupted production. Because of the interchange of employees in performing the various functions at the plant maintainers ands adjusters do 80 to 85 percent of, the work which millwrights perform. The, electrician and electronic repairmen work with production employees 85 to 90 percent of the time. Although the mainte- nance employees have assigned work areas off the production floor (where tools and some equipment are kept), they spend the vast majority of their time working right alongside production employees. The record disclosed numerous functions which are performed by both production and maintenance employees although major repair work will be contracted out Furthermore, a number of functions are performed on the basis of whoever is available in the area of the plant where such work isneeded.: - While there are maintenance supervisors and production supervisors, when maintenance employ- ees are in production areas (85 to 99-percent of the time) they will be supervised by production supervi- sors. Thus, production supervisors can reassign maintenance employees to- perform,'various tasks. All employees will be directly supervised by production supervisors in the second shift which was -to have begun ,June 1. As the first and. second shifts will be rotated each month, all maintenance employees will eventually work on the second shift and will be directed by production supervisors. ' With regard to the working conditions at the plant, both production and maintenance employees receive the same training, work, on the same shift schedule, are on the same. payroll, serve-the same' probationary period, have the same fringe benefits; and use the same repair manuals.,Neither production nor mainte- nance employees are required -to possess any special educational or experience qualifications in order to be hired by the Employer. Furthermore, 4 here are no badges or insignia of any type to distinguish one employee from another. On'the, basis of the foregoing, we find that all of the production and maintenance 'employees involved herein constitute a unit"appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining, particularly in light of the automation in the plant, the overlap of job duties, the common supervision, the common location of the production lines and the shared responsibility for and participation in the operation of the equipment. Accordingly, we find that the electrical workers, carpenters, and steamfitters do not have a sufficient community of interest to warrant their establishment as separate bargaining units., With regard to the contract-bar assertions of the, Electrical Workers and the Steamfitters, in order to decide whether their contracts with the brewery,, cover employees at the Container Division, a prior determination must be made that the Container Division constitutes an JOS. SCHLITZ BREWING CO. accretion to the brewery unit.4 As- there has been no interchange of brewery and Container Division employees, as' management and administrative con- trol is separate, and because of the difference in working conditions and skills, we do not view the production and maintenance workers as an accretion to- the .unit. Accordingly, we find, that the electrical workers and the steamfitters do not by themselves constitute, separate units appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining. 4. Beacon Photo Service, Inc., 163 NLRB 706. 5 In order to assure that all eligible voters may have the opportunity to be informed of the issues in the exercise of their statutory right to vote, all parties to the election should have access to a list of voters and their addresses which may be - used to communicate ' with them. Excelsior Underwear Inc., 156 NLRB 1236 ; N.LR.B. v. Wyman-Gordon Co., 394 U.S. 759. Accordingly, it is hereby directed that an election eligibility list, containing the names and addresses of all the eligible voters, must be filed 555 4. We find that the following employees' constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9(b).of -the Act: all production and maintenance employees at the Employer's Oak Creek, Wisconsin, plant, exclud- ing office clerical employees, technical, employees, professional employees, guards and supervisors as defined in the Act. [Direction of Elections omitted from publication.] by the Employer with the Regional Director for Region 30, within 7 days' of the date of this Decision and Direction of Election . The Regional Director shall make the list available to all parties to the election. No extension of time to file this list shall be granted by the Regional Director except in extraordinary circumstances . Failure to comply, with ; this requirement shall be grounds for setting aside the election whenever proper objections are filed.